Wow, it's been such a busy few weeks and as usual Anna's learning/doing lots of new things:
Eating meat/3 meals a day
An update on her solids food: she's now eating a lot more variety and also in a lumpier consistency. We have also introduced meat and fish into her diet, again, she took to it without a problem. Recently we've added full cream diary: milk (on her breakfast cereal), yogurt (natural yogurt mixed with fruit), butter (in her mash potato) and cheese (grated on her pasta or as finger food), Anna just loves it. On top of that we've started giving her cruskit (a type of biscuit snack) which she loves to hold and eat herself.
Her favourite snack right now is mandarins, often eating up to a whole fruit each day. We also bought a high chair for Anna to sit on for her meals so she's more upright. So far she's really enjoying sucking and banging on the tray while spreading food all over the place. Luckily we bought the most simple high chair that can be hosed down so mess isn't too much of a problem (can't say the same for our carpet!).
Crawling/shuffling
While we can't quite call it crawling, Anna's definitely moving about on all fours. It's more like dragging and shuffling using mainly her arms. She can push herself up quite high (as though doing a push up) and can sway back and forth, but she hasn't quite worked out how to move with her legs into a crawl. We're sure that this will happen very soon so baby proofing our apartment is one of the main concerns right now.
Teeth
Just a day before her 6-month birthday, Anna got her first tooth. It was the lower left central incisor, little sharp spikes poking through her gums. The tooth to the right followed exactly one week later. We've also started to help her brush them with a very cool baby toothbrush. Although we can't quite connect any specific signs of teething, Anna has been more unsettled at night. The websites tell us that it can be due to teething, developmental milestones (baby wanting to practice new skills even in their sleep), separation anxiety etc etc that can cause baby to wake up at night. Since it's starting to get colder at night, we've often resorted to putting her in bed with us. Although we hear that co-sleeping is a way to spoil a baby, we both enjoy snuggling up to our little one on those cold nights, and so does Anna.
First cold
The inevitable has happened – Anna caught her first cold. We're not sure if it's from another baby or just a particularly cold day at swimming, but we've been preparing for this day to come, after all this is the only way for her to build up her immunity. Although there was no fever, Anna was very uncomfortable with a stuffy nose and complained (very loudy) when we tried to clear it for her with saline drip and a suction bulb. The books say babies can have around 6 colds in their first 2 years so we better all get used to it.
Waving
We're super proud of this one as Anna is (again) the first baby to achieve this in our little group. I've been trying to teach her to sign 'bye-bye' for a while but she'd always look at me like I'm an idiot. It was a total surprise a couple of weeks ago when we were visiting my aunt's new house Anna started to wave. And once she started she just wouldn't stop! She even practices while falling asleep :) She can now also sign 'bye-bye' but she doesn't understand the difference between the 2 greetings. When we were at her 6-month check up recently she started waving to the midwife. Later that week I heard from another mum that the same midwife was raving about Anna's 'advanced skills'. So proud!
It seems to get harder and harder to find time to write on this blog but I'm determined to keep going. It's great to mark down all of Anna's achievements and a pat on our backs for doing a good job raising her :)
